Monulphus of Maastricht

Saint Monulphus of Maastricht, hierarch, was bishop of Tongeren and Maastricht in the 6th century and died on 16 July 599 in Maastricht, according to one of the sources; others give 588 or 609. He is venerated as a saint in the Western Church and remembered on 16 July.

Little is known of his life. The Acta Sanctorum knows two lives of him, neither older than the 11th century. His birthplace is given as Dinant, and his father as Count Randace of Dinant. Late lists number him as the twenty-⁠first bishop of Tongeren-⁠Maastricht-⁠Liège, or the eleventh after Saint Servatius. Several historians believe that he moved the see of the diocese from Tongeren to Maastricht. Between 560 and 580 he had a great church built at Maastricht for Saint Servatius and solemnly moved his relics there. He was buried in that church, and his sarcophagus was placed in the middle of it.

Tradition says that, traveling from Dinant to Maastricht, he stopped in the valley of the river Légia and prophesied that a powerful city would rise there; he built a small oratory in honor of Saints Cosmas and Damian. The city of Liège is said to descend from this. He was raised to the saints in 1039, in the presence of Emperor Henry III. He is often venerated together with his successor Saint Gondulph, especially at Aachen.